The Buddha visited Nālandā during his last tour
through
Magadha, and it was there that
Sāriputta uttered his "lion's roar,"
affirming his faith in the Buddha, shortly before his death (D.ii.81f.;
iii.99ff.; S.v.159ff.). The road from Rājagaha to Nālandā passed through
Ambalatthikā
(D.ii.81; Vin.ii.287), and from Nālandā it went on to
Pātaligāma (D.ii.84). Between Rājagaha
and Nālandā was situated the Bahuputta cetiya
(S.ii.220).

According to the Kevatta Sutta (D.i.211),
in the Buddha's time Nālandā was already an influential and prosperous town,
thickly populated, though it was not till later that it became the centre of
learning for which it afterwards became famous. There is a record in the
Samyutta Nikāya (S.iv.322), of the town having been the victim of a severe
famine during the Buddha's time.

Hsouien Thsang (Beal: op. cit., ii.167f )
gives several explanations of the name Nālandā. One is that it was named after
the Nāga who lived in a tank in the middle of the mango grove. Another -
and accepted by him - is that the Bodhisatta once had his capital here and
gave "alms without intermission," hence the name.

Nālanda is, in the northern books, given as the name of Sāriputta's
birthplace (see Nālaka).

Nālanda is identified with the modern Baragaon (CAGI. 537).

2. Nālandā

A village in the central province of Ceylon. Once Parakkamabāhu I. occupied a
camp there, and it is several times mentioned in the accounts of his campaigns.
Cv.lxx.167, 207; lxxii.169.

1. Nālandā Sutta

A conversation between the Buddha and
Upāligahapati in
Pāvārika's mango grove, as to why some
beings attain full freedom in this world while others do not. S.iv.110.